Sinners and penitents throughout history

February 25, 2004|The Morning Call

May the saints preserve us from those youthful profligates, who, when once they repent, set out to mend the ways of the rest of us.Whether the penitents are St. Augustine, Mel Gibson or George W. Bush, the patterns are similar.

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, had a wastrel youth that makes Mel's and George W.'s pale. However, Augustine in his writings came up with several potent policies: one, that sex is incompatible with religious piety. Therefore he insisted on the celibacy of the clergy. He seems to have written nothing about celibacy and secular governance.

About the time of the Second Crusade, there was a realization that the only way to unite the bickering and disparate Islamic states is to bring them together under the banner of Jihad. Gamel Nasser tried this and the United States is now working inadvertently toward that end.

We and the Republican National Committee explored the character of Bill Clinton for eight years and his chickens later came home to roost, although none of them landed on Whitewater. Now the Republican National Committee will be looking into the closets and drawers of Sens. Kerry and Edwards as they never did into George W.'s in 2000. That sinner had repented.

These explorations into the candidates' bedrooms is irrelevant. It would be easier to justify if we humans went into rut once a year like deer instead of 365 days a year as we are designed by our maker. Keep the Department of Justice and the Constitution out of the bedroom.

So, let the dirty tricks roll as they did in 1972, (a banner year) and let us hope that no more chickens come home to roost on the best and brightest. But then, we will always have George W.